700 Fantastic Mr. Fox

[Antoine Doinel]

I'm really glad Jarvis Cocker is involved. The songs he wrote for the soundtrack of Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire were surprisingly good.

[Cash Flagg]

From Variety:

Anderson just completed directing an animated adaptation of Roald Dahl novel "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" with 20th Century Fox Animation.

[AWA]

Even better news is that Wes looks like he is aware he is getting rather boxed in with his own writing methods and might be better served working as a director on outside ideas.

[mfunk9786]

Remakes just tend to be pretty low forms of filmmaking... it'd still be nice to see him working on original material and just trying to infuse some originality into it, rather than remaking movies from two years ago.

[LQ]

Remakes just tend to be pretty low forms of filmmaking... it'd still be nice to see him working on original material and just trying to infuse some originality into it, rather than remaking movies from two years ago.

Fantastic Mr Fox is a...remake?? I don't follow

[Jeff]

Fantastic Mr Fox is a...remake?? I don't follow

My Best Friend remake discussion moved here.

[Antoine Doinel]

Here's the logo.

[Gregory]

The blue and orange color scheme makes it seem related to the 20th Century Fox and the Firefox logos, at least to my mind.

I can't believe Twitter actually calls its photo sharing system TwitPic. That just made my day.

[Antoine Doinel]

The film will be in theaters on November 13th.

[visuallyimpaired]

A friend, not too conversed in movies - but a computer wiz, told me she visited the company that is doing the animation for Wes Anderson's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". The people had rather odd things to say about the goings on there. They told her Mr. Anderson never visits the facility and seems very inactively involved to the point that the crew was quit perplexed.

I quizzed my friend and she herself named the title of the film and was aware of the director. This seems nearly impossible to me. Anderson seems like one of the most hands on directors in the biz. My only thought was that perhaps once the film is story boarded a director doesn't really need to be around for an animated feature. Could this be the case? God, I hope it is because I was looking forward to see how Anderson's formal front and center picture framing was going to translate into the wonderful world of non pixar animation. I do hope he is not too busy partying around town in his dapper attire and leaving caution to the wind,

Tell me it isn't so, Joe!

[Antoine Doinel]

I would imagine the animation team is probably more involved in the technical backend of the animation rather than Anderson himself. He is probably working directly with his animation team and counting on their expertise as to the ins and outs of what goes on the animation company. He is probably more concerned with approving the visual aesthetics (characters, backgrounds etc) than getting minutely involved in area which he has no experience in anyway.

[Cde.]

The best animation directors stay with the animation teams and realise that it's in the subtleties of the execution that life can be breathed into a picture.

A lot of live action directors that move into animation don't really understand this because the process is so new to them. I hope this isn't the case with Wes Anderson.

[knives]

He has some experience with Life Aquatic, and by that one I believe he gets the subtitles of animation. Maybe it's a misunderstanding by the friend of the topic bringer uper (I'm sure the internet has a more technical term).

[Antoine Doinel]

Wes Anderson will finally get his own Happy Meal.

[Cde.]

Joblo have an exclusive first picture.

Looks different than I expected. I like it.

[gokinsmen]

Wes Anderson will finally get his own Happy Meal.

I think that pretty much sums up his career trajectory.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Wes Anderson will finally get his own Happy Meal.

I think that pretty much sums up his career trajectory.

I don't get it.

[Antoine Doinel]

Here's a first look.

[gokinsmen]

Wes Anderson will finally get his own Happy Meal.

I think that pretty much sums up his career trajectory.

I don't get it.

i.e. he's been made into a cutesy, bland, factory-assembled product.

Frankly, he's more of a brand than an artist now. Which is sad. I was obsessed with Rushmore in high school and thought he was just getting started. As I've grown up and seen more films, all of his other work has dipped considerably for me. Even Rushmore just feels like a perfectly executed entertainment for teenagers (or teens-at-heart). Maybe he's like the Weezer of contemporary film -- for all the time spent wondering how they went so wrong, maybe the real miracle is how they ever got it so right.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

So because the studio sees that a childrens movie could use a tie in with a Happy Meal, all of the sudden he's factory assembled product?

Isn't that pushing it?

[gokinsmen]

So because the studio sees that a childrens movie could use a tie in with a Happy Meal, all of the sudden he's factory assembled product?

Isn't that pushing it?

No, I'm saying his latest films have felt like "cutesy, bland, factory-assembled product"...and now he's also getting a custom happy meal, which I see as a strangely "symbolic" coincidence.

[flyonthewall2983]

Somehow, I don't see it getting the McD's tie-in since it's been scuttled over to Searchlight.

[Cde.]

It was only speculation that it would get a Happy Meal in the first place. The deal probably covers things like Aliens in the Attic (which incidentally has the best voiceover guy in history in its trailer), and Avatar.
Then again, the trailer for this film is supposedly attached to Ice Age 3 and Aliens in the Attic, so who knows.

[pianocrash]

A series of stills is now up at the official website (or capped here), a few featuring Bill Murray's head.

[Jeff]

A series of stills is now up at the official website (or capped here), a few featuring Bill Murray's head.

Those look great! Anderson was really born for stop-motion, with all of its intricately detailed little miniatures in diorama. Mr. Fox is even wearing an Andersonian corduroy suit in a couple of those pics.